WINTON—A spoof by Ely’s Mike Jankovec went viral on the Internet this week, prompting calls from television stations and newspapers around the area and a deluge of comments.

The excitement started when Jankovec one-upped friend Terry Jackson who had taken photos of swans near Winton recently. Jankovec photoshopped a cougar into his own picture taken from the same spot where Jackson had found the swans.

Jankovec posted it on Facebook to make his friend laugh, but not everyone was in on the joke, and rumors started flying.

“I even got a call from Fox News,” said Jankovec, who was amazed at the commotion his Facebook posting caused.

There have been reports of cougars in the Winton area before, but this appeared to some to be hard evidence of their existence in the area.

Jankovec said he never claimed the photo was real, and in an age when Photoshop makes it so easy to alter photographs, he said it’s best to take every online image with a grain of salt. Indeed.